Red-hot Mikko Rantanen scored two more goals and Nathan MacKinnon extended a pair of streaks as the Colorado Avalanche won their eighth consecutive game, 6-1 over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist and Ross Colton also scored for the Avalanche, who have won 10 of 11 to remain tied with Dallas for the top spot in the Central Division.

Rantanen had a hat trick in Tuesday’s win over St. Louis and has eight goals in his last five games.

MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to extend his home point streak to 33 games. He also has 11 goals and 23 assists during a 17-game overall point streak.

Elvis Merzlikins stopped a season-high 44 shots for the last-place Blue Jackets.

Milano has hat trick in Capitals’ shootout win

Sonny Milano notched his first career hat trick and Dylan Strome scored the lone shootout goal to lift the Washington Capitals to a wild 7-6 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Strome had three assists in regulation and Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson and Ivan Miroshnichenko also scored as the Capitals won their fourth in five games to get within one point of Detroit for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Sebastian Aho scored three goals and Jake Guentzel had three assists for Carolina, which had won four straight. The Hurricanes moved to 7-1-1 in their last nine games and are within one point of the Rangers for the lead in the Metropolitan Division.

Benn lifts Stars over Penguins

Jamie Benn scored two goals in a 77-second span in the second period and the Dallas Stars topped the sliding Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2.

Joe Pavelski and Sam Steel also scored and Jake Oettinger stopped 20 shots for the Stars, who have won three in a row to tie Colorado for first place in the Central Division.

Michael Bunting and Rickard Rakell tallied for Pittsburgh, which fell to 0-6-1 in its last seven road games.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach the 20-goal mark for the 19th time in his career and help the resurgent Washington Capitals earn an important 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday.

Ovechkin's 20th and 21st goals of the season, both of which came on power plays in the second period, sparked the Capitals' third straight win. Washington is now 10-4-1 since Feb. 17 and one point ahead of the slumping Detroit Red Wings in the race for the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot.

Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson each contributed a goal and an assist to the victory, with Strome recording the lone goal of a first period in which Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 12 of his 34 saves.

Ovechkin's goals came 3:18 apart in the second period and pushed the Capitals' lead to 3-0. The future Hall of Famer became the sixth player in NHL history with 19 seasons of 20 or more goals.

Kevin Rooney put Calgary on the board with 9:19 remaining in the second before Hendrix Lapierre restored Washington's three-goal advantage with 5:38 left in the period.

The Flames fought back by recording 13 third-period shots and pulled to within 4-2 when MacKenzie Weegar rocketed the puck past Lindgren 7:13 into the frame.

Lindgren stood tall the rest of the way, however, before Wilson put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal with 2:29 left.

Dustin Wolf stopped 28 of 32 shots for Calgary, which had a two-game winning streak halted. 

Skinner's hat trick helps Sabres rout Kraken

Jeff Skinner recorded a hat trick and helped the Buffalo Sabres to a fast start which carried them to a 6-2 drubbing of the Seattle Kraken.

Skinner, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch all had goals in the first 5:41 of the game to spark Buffalo's fourth win in its last five outings. The surge has moved the Sabres within four points of a play-off spot in the Eastern Conference.

Thompson and Tuch added assists during Buffalo's early barrage, which came after Jordan Eberle gave Seattle a quick 1–0 lead just 24 seconds into the contest.

Thompson tied the game a mere 25 seconds later, however, and Skinner and Tuch soon followed with goals as the Sabres scored on three of their first four shots to prompt the Kraken to pull goaltender Joey Daccord less than six minutes in.

Seattle got one goal back before the conclusion of the period when Matty Berniers converted a power play, but failed to solve Buffalo's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen the rest of the way.

Luukkonen stopped 32 shots, including all 18 he faced in the third period.

After Owen Power's goal midway through the second period put Buffalo up 4-2, Skinner fired a shot past Seattle replacement netminder Philipp Grubauer just 42 seconds later.

Skinner completed his first hat trick of the season by beating Grubauer on a rush with 1:59 left to play.

Grubauer finished with 23 saves in Seattle's fifth consecutive loss (0-4-1).

Alex Ovechkin ignited a run of five unanswered goals and the Washington Capitals picked up a key 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday.

Ovechkin’s 17th goal of the season and 839th of his career at 4:34 of the second period cut Philadelphia’s lead to 2-1 before Sonny Milano and John Carlson scored later in the period to put Washington ahead for good.

Anthony Mantha and Dylan Strome added third-period goals for the Capitals, who have won five of seven to pull within four points of the third-place Flyers in the Metropolitan Division.

Bobby Brink and Owen Tippett scored for Philadelphia, which has dropped five of seven. The Flyers played their fourth straight game without All-Star forward Travis Konecny, who could return next week.

Coyotes snap 14-game losing streak

Dylan Guenther snapped a tie in the third period and the Arizona Coyotes held on for a 5-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators to end a 14-game losing streak.

Michael Carcone, J.J. Moser, Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli had the other goals to help Arizona stop a 0-12-2 slide with its first win since Jan. 22.

Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves to earn his first win since Dec. 27 after going 0-8-0 in 10 appearances since.

Ottawa lost its third straight game and both meetings this season against Arizona.

Dostal stars in Ducks’ win

Lukas Dostal stopped 52 shots and Jack Hughes’ penalty shot with 2.1 seconds remaining to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Frank Vatrano scored twice and Adam Henrique and Max Jones had the other goals as the Ducks won back-to-back games after a three-game skid.

Hughes had a goal and two assists but failed to convert a late penalty shot, awarded when Vatrano deliberately knocked the net off its moorings following a scramble around Dostal.

Alex Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky with his NHL-record 57th empty-net goal and the Washington Capitals snapped a six-game losing streak with a 3-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

T.J. Oshie scored his 299th career goal and Charlie Lindgren made 18 saves for his third shutout of the season as the Capitals won for the first time since defeating St. Louis on Jan. 18.

Ovechkin’s goal was his 12th of the season and 834th of his career, leaving him 61 shy of surpassing Gretzky’s NHL record.

The Bruins were outshot 27-7 through two periods and lost for the third time in their last four home games.

Red Wings win on penalty shot in overtime

Jake Walman scored on a penalty shot in overtime to complete the Detroit Red Wings’ comeback 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Detroit trailed 3-1 entering the third period, but Daniel Sprong scored on a power play at 2:34 and Michael Rasmussen scored the tying goal five minutes later.

The Red Wings improved to 3-0-1 in their last four games and won for the seventh time when trailing after two periods.

Patrick Kane had an assist in his 1,200th career game in his return after missing the last seven games with a lower-body injury.

Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson each had a goal and two assists for the league-leading Canucks, who had a 12-game point streak snapped with a 4-0 loss to Boston on Thursday.

Senators beat Leafs before wild ending

Shane Pinto scored one goal and set up two others to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game that ended with Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly cross-checking Ridly Greig for using a slap shot to score into an empty net.

Claude Giroux, Vladimir Tarasenko and Josh Norris also scored as the Senators matched a season high with their third straight victory.

Greig decided to use a slap shot to score from short range and Rielly took exception. As Greig headed back up the boards toward the bench, Rielly hit him high with a cross-check.

He was given a five-minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct.

Nathan MacKinnon scored three of his four goals consecutively and added an assist and Mikko Rantanen had a goal and four assists to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 6-2 rout of the Washington Capitals on Wednesday.

MacKinnon’s first goal of the game at 2:39 of the second period extended Colorado’s lead to 2-0, and he made it 3-0 at the 7-minute mark. He notched his third goal of the game 2:16 later and completed his second four-goal game of the season with 3:46 remaining in the third period.

MacKinnon, who drew an assist on Rantanen’s third-period goal, leads the NHL with 82 points, two more than Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.

The Avalanche superstar extended his home point streak to 24 games to break a tie with Joe Sakic for the franchise record. MacKinnon has 11 goals and 15 assists during an overall 12-game point streak.

Cale Makar set the franchise record for goals by a defenseman with his 76th and Colorado improved to 10-1-0 in its last 11 home games.

Canucks rally to extend point streak in OT loss

Pius Suter completed his hat trick with 52 seconds left in regulation and the Vancouver Canucks pushed their point streak to 10 games with a 4-3 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues.

Brayden Schenn scored the game-winner at 1:54 of overtime after Vancouver battled back from a 3-1 deficit in the third behind Suter’s two goals.

Jake Neighbours had a goal and an assist to help the Blues win their third straight.

Quinn Hughes had a pair of assists as the Canucks moved to 8-0-2 in their last 10 games and increased the league’s highest point total to 69.

Hurricanes cool Bruins with late goal

Jordan Martinook scored with 2 ½ minutes remaining and Spencer Martin made 26 saves to win his Hurricanes debut as Carolina ended the Boston Bruins’ six-game winning streak, 3-2.

Boston rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period on goals by Brad Marchand, but Martinook beat Linus Ullmark on a breakaway for the winner.

Martin Necas and Teuvo Teravainen also scored for the Hurricanes, who have won five straight road games.

Marchand’s goals gave him 395, tying him with Ray Bourque for fifth on the team’s all-time list. Bourque scored 395 of his 410 career goals with the Bruins.

Darnell Nurse scored 80 seconds into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers matched a franchise record with their ninth straight victory, 3-2 over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman had the other goals for the Oilers, who also won nine in a row late last season and in 2001. They can break the team mark on Saturday night in Montreal.

McDavid extended his point streak to nine games and notched the 906th of his career, pulling him into a fourth-place tie with Glenn Anderson on the team’s all-time list.

Hyman is also red hot with eight goals and four assists in his last eight games.

Andrew Copp and Olli Maata scored for the Red Wings, who have points in four straight (3-0-1).

Panthers score late in overtime to continue streak

Sam Reinhart scored with less than a second left in overtime as the Florida Panthers rallied to extend their winning streak to nine games, 3-2 over the slumping Los Angeles Kings.

Matthew Tkachuk scored the equaliser with 2:18 remaining in regulation and Sam Bennett also tallied for the Panthers, who have the third-longest winning streak in franchise history.

Florida won 12 straight games in the 2015-16 season, then had their other two longest streaks in 2021-22 – eight consecutive wins to open that season, then 13 in a row toward the end of that season.

Reinhart has goals in five straight games, tallying 13 in his last 11 contests.

Los Angeles is winless in seven in a row (0-3-4).

Kraken win 8th straight

Joey Daccord stopped 25 shots and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Washington Capitals 4-1 for their franchise record-tying eighth consecutive win.

Tye Kartye, Adam Larsson, Justin Schultz and Alex Wennberg scored for the Kraken, who are 10-0-2 in their last 12 games. They haven’t had a regulation loss since Dec. 10.

Daccord improved to 7-0-0 in his last eight games, with an eye-popping .966 save percentage during that span.

Kartye and Larsson became the 15th and 16th players to score for Seattle during this streak.

Max Pacioretty scored his first goal of the season for Washington, which has lost seven of nine (2-5-2).

Lukas Dostal stopped a career-high 55 shots before Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 30th goal in overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

Dostal protected a 1-0 lead until John Tavares banged home a rebound on a power play with 5:43 left in regulation.

Frank Vatrano scored in the second period for the Ducks, who lost their third straight and dropped to 1-5-0 on a season-high eight-game homestand.

Toronto extended its streak of not being shut out to 181 games, a run that started in November 2021.

Hischier leads Devils over Capitals

Nico Hischier scored two goals and set up another on the eve of his 25th birthday to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 6-3 win over the Washington Capitals.

Dawson Mercer and Michael McLeod also scored twice for the Devils, who squandered a two-goal lead before recovering to win for the fourth time in five games.

Evgeny Kuznetsov had a goal and an assist for Washington to end a 10-game point drought. The Capitals dropped to 1-3-2 in their last six games.

Max Pacioretty went pointless in his Capitals debut, playing his first NHL game in nearly a year after tearing his right Achilles tendon.

Nathan MacKinnon notched the first four-goal game in Avalanche history and extended his point streak to 17 games Thursday as Colorado rallied for a 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators.

MacKinnon opened the scoring 2:43 into the game and tallied again with 1:32 left in the first period for his 300th career goal. 

He completed his hat trick at 6:16 of the third period to lift the Avs into a 4-4 tie and scored into an empty net with 23 seconds left.

MacKinnon has 12 goals and 21 assists during his 17-game streak, the longest of his career.

Mikko Rantanen had a pair of power-play goals and Cale Makar had two assists in his return from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for three games.

Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist as the Senators lost their sixth in a row, the last two coming under interim coach Jacques Martin, who replaced the fired D.J. Smith on Monday.

Sabres respond with rout of Maple Leafs

Jeff Skinner returned from a three-game absence with two goals and an assist and the Buffalo Sabres responded to their worst loss of the season with a 9-3 rout of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Tage Thompson had a goal and two assists and captain Kyle Okposo scored twice for the Sabres, who were coming off a 9-4 loss to Columbus on Tuesday, when the team was booed off the ice.

Rookie Devon Levi shook off allowing Auston Matthews’ league-leading 26th goal in the first period from a bad angle to stop 25 shots. He improved to 4-1-1 in his past six appearances.

Ilya Samsonov surrendered five goals on 19 shots before he was replaced in the second period by Martin Jones, who allowed four goals on 16 shots.

Toronto has allowed 14 goals in consecutive losses following a nine-game point streak.

Ovechkin ends drought in Capitals’ win

Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal in 15 games on a power play with 53 seconds left in overtime to lift the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ovechkin’s sixth goal of the season and 828th of his career was his first since Nov. 18 and his 26th in overtime, extending his NHL record. It was also his 125th game-winner overall, second in league history behind Jaromir Jagr’s 135.

Anthony Mantha scored twice and John Carlson had three assists as Washington won its third straight.

Cam Talbot stopped 24 shots and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-0 on Thursday for their NHL-record 11th straight road win to open the season.

Quinton Byfield had two goals and an assist and Drew Doughty added a goal and an assist for the Kings, who surpassed the mark set by the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres.

Los Angeles is one road win away from matching the NHL record of 12 consecutive road victories at any point during the season.

The Kings have won three straight and eight of nine overall.

Montreal was shut out by the Kings for the second time this season after a 4-0 loss on Nov. 25.

Sharks rally to spoil Kane’s Red Wings debut

The San Jose Sharks overcame a four-goal deficit and spoiled Patrick Kane’s debut with the Red Wings in a 6-5 overtime victory.

Mikael Granlund scored 37 seconds into overtime and Nico Sturm and Tomas Hertl each scored twice for the Sharks, who have rallied from deficits of at least three goals to win consecutive games in OT.

Kane, a nine-time All-Star, signed a one-year contract with Detroit on Nov. 28. He didn’t record a point and hit the post early in the third period.

Michael Rasmussen scored twice for the Red Wings, who had won six of seven.

San Jose has won five of seven after winning just three times in its first 20 games.

Ovechkin hits milestone in Capitals’ shootout loss

Alexander Ovechkin recorded his 1,500th regular season point, but Roope Hintz scored twice in the third period and the Dallas Stars rallied for a 5-4 shootout win over the Washington Capitals.

Ovechkin assisted on Dylan Strome’s second goal of the game midway through the third period to become the 16th player in NHL history to reach that plateau.

Jason Robertson had two assists in regulation and scored the only goal in the shootout as Dallas rebounded from consecutive losses.

Aliaksei Protas and Evgeny Kuznetsov also had goals for the Capitals, who lost their third in a row (0-2-1).

Charlie Lindgren had a spectacular 37-save performance and Connor McMichael and Anthony Mantha each had a goal and an assist as the Washington Capitals held off the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 on Wednesday.

Lindgren allowed Arthur Kaliyev’s goal midway through the first period before stopping all 27 shots over the final two periods.

The Kings had a five-game winning streak snapped and lost in regulation for the second time in the last 15 games (11-2-2).

Cam Talbot faced just 15 shots as he dropped to 7-2-0 in his last nine starts.

Rangers rally past Red Wings

Jimmy Vesey scored the go-ahead goal with 4:15 left in the third period and Igor Shesterkin turned away 26 shots as the New York Rangers rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

Second-period goals by Moritz Seider and Robby Fabbri gave Detroit a 2-1 lead but K’Andre Miller drew the Rangers even midway through the third and Vesey batted a rebound out of mid-air and past Ville Husso for the game-winner.

Artemi Panarin also scored for NHL-leading New York, which rebounded from Monday’s loss to Buffalo to avoid losing consecutive games for the first time this season.

Husso made a season-high 38 saves, but Detroit had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Armia’s late goal lifts Canadiens

Joel Armia snapped a tie with 2:57 remaining in regulation to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield scored in the second period and Gustav Lindstrom added an empty-net goal as the Canadiens won for the third time in four games following a four-game skid.

Patrik Laine and Yegor Chinakov scored for the Blue Jackets, who had won three of four.

Sam Montembeault made 26 saves to help Montreal close a five-game road trip 3-2. 

Sidney Crosby scored twice on the power play in the second period and Tristan Jarry stopped 20 shots as the Pittsburgh Penguins earned their first win of the season with a 4-0 victory over the Washington Capitals on Friday.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and three assists and Reilly Smith also scored to help the Penguins rebound from Tuesday’s season-opening loss to Chicago.

Washington lost its debut under new coach Spencer Carbery and was shut out for the first time in 49 season openers.

Backup Charlie Lindgren made 31 saves in place of Darcy Kuemper, who was away while his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child.

Coyotes edge Devils in shootout

Karel Vejmelka was perfect in the shootout and the Arizona Coyotes recovered after giving up a two-goal lead in a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.

Nick Bjugstad and Nick Schmaltz scored in the shootout and Vejmelka turned away attempts by Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt to give Arizona a win in its season opener.

Bratt had two goals and an assist in regulation, and Dougie Hamilton scored one goal and set up another for New Jersey, which was coming off a 4-3 win over Detroit in its season opener.

The Boston Bruins have "much bigger goals" in the Stanley Cup playoffs than a record-breaking NHL regular season.

Boston set a new high for single-season wins with their 63rd against the Philadelphia Flyers over the weekend, and they made yet more history with win 64 on Tuesday.

A 5-2 defeat of the Washington Capitals took the Bruins to 133 points for the season, clear of the Montreal Canadiens' 1976-77 benchmark of 132.

But postseason success is the primary goal for the Bruins. Since winning their sixth Stanley Cup in 2011, this is their third Presidents' Trophy.

That Canadiens team, widely considered the greatest of all time, followed up their regular season by winning the title.

Winger Brad Marchand said: "We have a very special group. It's incredible how we've come together this year.

"We've done a phenomenal job all year of staying in the moment.

"We're proud of the group, but this is a regular-season record. That's not what we're playing for. We have our sights set on much bigger goals.

"I think it [the record] is something we'll look at down the road when we're daydreaming about what we got to do and what we've accomplished."

Boston coach Jim Montgomery was a little more open to discussing the team's latest achievement, recalling the quality of the 1977 Canadiens.

"I think of all the Hall of Famers on those teams and then Scotty Bowman behind the bench and going to the old Montreal Forum," he said.

"Think about how great those teams were and how we've surpassed that total. It's significant because those were dominant, dominant hockey teams."

Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin never expected to achieve the "miracle" of overtaking Gordie Howe into second place in the list of the NHL's all-time record scorers.

Ovechkin scored twice in Friday's 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets to equal and then surpass Howe's tally of 801 on what was his 1,305th career outing.

The Russian now trails only Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL history, the latter scoring 894 in 1,487 games.

"You never think it's going to happen when you come to the league, that you're going to beat any Gordie Howe record or Wayne Gretzky record," Ovechkin said. 

"The whole situation happening right now, it's some miracle."

Ovechkin has 22 goals for the season and has scored at least 24 in his previous 17 NHL campaigns, his personal best coming in 2007-08 when he netted 65 times.

He was given a standing ovation against the Jets and the game was temporarily stopped as a message from Howe's son Mark was played on the big screen at Capital One Arena.

"It's nice to get it done at home in front of our house, family and friends. It's a great feeling," Ovechkin added. "It's a tremendous feeling."

Gretzky's long-standing record will now be in the sights of Ovechkin, who turned 37 in September and has another three years to run on his Capitals contract.

"It's just crazy to see – it's a huge number," said Ovechkin's team-mate Dmitry Orlov. "It's a great accomplishment for his game, for his person and for his family, too

"The way he is going now, for sure it is awesome, and you hope he is going to stay healthy – another day, another milestone."

The Washington Capitals have filled their biggest need on the NHL's first day of free agency by signing Stanley Cup champion goaltender Darcy Kuemper to a five-year, $26.25million contract.

Kuemper joins the Capitals off a highly successful lone campaign in Colorado in which he tied for fourth in the NHL in wins (37) and shutouts (five) and ranked fifth among qualified goaltenders with a .921 save percentage during the regular season.

The 10-year veteran then posted a 10-4-1 record with a 2.57 goals against average in 16 postseason starts to help the Avalanche to their first championship since 2001.

"Darcy is an established starting netminder who proved that he can win on the game's biggest stage, and we are excited to welcome him to Washington," Capitals senior vice president and general manager Brian MacLellan said Wednesday in a statement.

"We feel this signing will provide our team confidence and stability in net."

Kuemper, an All-Star in 2019-20 with the Arizona Coyotes, will be asked to stabilise a position that was often inconsistent for the Capitals last season.

Washington netminders combined for an .898 save percentage in 2021-22, the lowest of any team who reached the playoffs, and the team have since parted ways with their two main goalies from last season in Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov.

Vanecek was traded to the New Jersey Devils last week, and Samsonov signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs after the Caps declined to tender a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent.

Washington also signed former St. Louis Blues goaltender Charlie Lindgren to back up Kuemper, who owns a 143-95-36 record with a 2.48 GAA and .918 save percentage in 299 career games with Minnesota, Los Angeles, Arizona and Colorado.

The Avalanche prepared for Kuemper's expected departure by acquiring Alexandar Georgiev from the New York Rangers last week and signing him to a three-year, $10.2m deal. Georgiev will compete with holdover Pavel Francouz for Colorado's number one netminder job.

Florida Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette said his side's fighting spirit was key in a series comeback against the Washington Capitals, culminating in Friday's 4-3 victory in overtime.

It was the Panthers' third straight win after falling down 2-1 in the series, and Game 6 was closely contested throughout.

After a scoreless first period, Nic Dowd opened the scoring for the Capitals, before Ryan Lomberg answered straight back to keep things at 1-1 heading into the last frame.

Nicklas Backstrom put the home side back in front, but the 'Comeback Cats' would not lay down, with Claude Giroux and Aleksander Barkov giving the Panthers a 3-2 lead.

In the closing stages, after the Capitals had pulled their goalie to get an extra attacker on the ice, T.J. Oshie found the equaliser to send the crowd into raptures and force overtime.

But this was the Panthers' night, and Carter Verhaeghe slotted the golden goal less than three minutes into the extra period to win the game and seal the series.

It is the first time the Panthers have won a playoff series since 1996, and Brunette said the performance epitomised their season.

"I think it's what we saw all year – the resiliency of the group," he said.

"People will say we're the 'Comeback Cats' – I'm not sure that's what I see – I see a group of guys that get hit, and they don't fall down, and they start hitting back. 

"They showed that throughout the whole series, they showed it tonight. 

"We gave up a late goal – it was a heart-breaking moment that could really affect you and can kill momentum – but again, we took the punch, we stood up, and we started punching back. It epitomises the whole season for us."

Asked if finally getting an elusive series win takes the pressure off his players, Brunette said he hopes it is the case.

"I hope [the series win takes the monkey off the Panthers' backs] – especially for the guys that have been here for a while," he said.

"It probably feels really good, because they put a lot of pressure on themselves – probably too much – throughout the course of the series. They were able to find a way and pull through it.

"I think as the series went on I felt they loosened up a little bit. We were a little nervous at home the other night, but they found their mojo and got going. 

"These things – you've got to go through them a few times to really get the feel of it. You have to have heartbreaks, you have to have things not go your way, to find out how hard it is, and understand it, and be resilient. 

"When you see the reward like they did tonight, it's all worth it."